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by KATE BURLING, The Namibian

Walvis Bay Mayor Manuel de Castro said the proposal deserved consideration and a balanced response, which his council was in the process of formulating. "We have asked for reaction from various line ministries and when we have their responses we will discuss the matter further," he said. "At that stage, if we feel the proposal should be taken a step further we will do that; if not, we will call it a day."

"But we are not going to stop everything immediately because of a newspaper report."

According to the Government's twice- weekly newspaper 'New Era', Windhoek-based company EnviroServ is trying to arrange the removal of 12,000 to 13,000 tons of "municipal solid waste" a day from New York City to destinations elsewhere, including Walvis Bay.

An initial approach by letter to De Castro outlined the proposal and suggested a follow-up meeting in December.

De Castro confirmed that the letter from EnviroServ had arrived "some months ago" and had been "handled in confidence".

"It is unfortunate that the matter has come to light now because it would probably have been a non-story in the near future," he said. De Castro also confirmed that reaction had been sought from, among others, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the Ministry of Regional and Local Government and Housing and the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication.

Two replies had been received so far: one which he described as "open-minded and not opposed to the idea as long as it was environmentally approved"; and another which "flatly rejected" the proposal.

"This goes to show the scope of opinion on this matter," said the Mayor, adding that no one could prevent business people making proposals to a council and that it would be unprofessional to simply "chase them away" without a proper response.

"I can tell you that beyond asking for reaction, there has been no serious discussion of the proposal. There has been no formal presentation by the company and one thing we are quite sure about is that Walvis Bay will not be a dumping ground for something that is not welcome in Namibia."

Asked why Walvis Bay Council had not politely rejected the proposal as a matter of course, De Castro said that while the Constitution of Namibia was clear on the dumping of certain types of materials, there was no injunction on the dumping of non-hazardous "domestic waste" or the use of incinerators to transform waste into energy.

"These things are used in other 'first world' countries and would not pose a problem if we were looking at ways of getting rid of our own waste. The difference is that we would be accepting someone else's waste." However, technical advice obtained by the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications was quoted in New Era as pointing out that "If the waste to be received is conventional municipal solid waste it is almost certain to have a wide variety of hazardous constituents which could be considered toxic under varying release and exposure conditions." Concerns raised so far have focused on the contamination of already scarce water sources and the toxic nature of US household waste generation practices.

De Castro was at pains to stress the complexity of the issue. "There are implications in the enormous quantities of waste being proposed, there are environmental and health implications, there are implications because Walvis Bay is a harbour," he said.

On the other hand, there were financial implications which could not be dismissed out of hand.

"With an issue like this everyone is ready to cry murder and foul, without looking in detail at what is being proposed."

Distributed via Africa News